Saturday, March 28, 2009

GIOS Super Record: Attention to Detail

A customer must have been very impressed back in the day when his GIOS was delivered. Beautiful frameset, pantographed chainring, seatpost, stem, water bottle; plus a cycling jersey and cap, and a bottle of touch-up paint. All packaged perfectly. Very classy.

This past year I was waiting at the side of the road in our support van as our cyclists rode past. Coming the other way on this road in the Langhe I noticed an older gentleman on a bright blue bicycle. As he came closer I recognized it as a Gios and called out "Bella bici!" as he went by. He heard me and quickly turned around and came back to where I was parked. He was riding a classic Gios Torino with all the pantographed bits as in your photo. The only change to it had been the saddle. He explained to me that he knew the owner of Gios personally "back-in-the-day" and ordered the top of the line bike which he's owned and ridden regularly ever since. I couldn't resist replacing his baseball cap with one of our cycling caps before he rode away!